BPC is making great progress on raising funds and finalizing a design for a new and improved playground at Buckingham Pond. Special thanks to the Lobo Living Trust, the Massry Family and the Bender Family Foundation for their financial support.

Designing a playground is a tricky balance of providing fun and activity for kids of all ages and abilities within a limited space and with a limited budget. The playground designer has provided the design shown below and we'd welcome your feedback via email to info@buckinghampondconservancy.org no later than Sunday, June 11, 2017. We hope to finalize the equipment shortly aiming for fall installation.

Below you will find three images - two views of how the playground will look, and an image with the location of the new playground shown over the existing site. Click on each to see a larger view. There is also a pdf with detailed information about each piece of equipment shown in the images. (This file is 6.44 MB so it may take a minute to download.)

The draft design includes two separate areas - one designed for toddlers, and one for larger kids. Each includes its own separate swing area. The initial feedback from the community was quite clear that families want more swings at the pond!

We believe a refined version of this draft will be achievable with help from the City of Albany - but making it happen will require lots volunteer labor as well. We will keep you posted as the plans for that are finalized.

And don't forget - if you want to have your family recognized at the pond, and help support the playground in the process, you can put your message on a commemorative brick for $50 (4" x 8") or $100 (8" x 8"). Purchase here: https://www.bricksrus.com/order/buckinghampond/

Buckingham Pond often struggles with too many geese - their droppings create a mess along the path and grass, and they contribute to water quality problems because they add too much fertilizer to the water and encourage too much plant growth. This is why we ask everyone to please, please not feed the geese and ducks. Feeding them attracts more birds than the pond can support and exacerbates the problems.

But apparently someone has taken matters in to their own hands in an unlawful way. Please see below from our community policy officer, and if you see something, please get in contact with Officer Brooks.

There has been recent incident at the Buckingham Lake/Pond regarding the geese population. There has been confirmed sightings of an unknown person killing the geese that reside at the pond. I do realize the geese may be a social nuisance but still this action is unacceptable. What I am asking is to keep a diligent observation towards any one who is in close proximity of these animals.

****Possible suspect sightings is a unknown white male dressing in a blue uniform operating a red newer model pick up with the lettering "DGS Wildlife" on the side. If you see this suspect or vehicle at or about the park area notify the police immediately ****

Note: Illegally killing Canadian Geese is in violation of Federal Fish/Wildlfe and NYS EnCon Law

For those of you unable to make our annual meeting this March, we had a good turnout of 30 or so members, friends, and neighbors. We also saw several of our elected officials in attendance including Mayor Sheehan, Treasurer Darius Shahinfar, County Legislator Andrew Joyce and Councilman Joe Igoe. That presentation we made to the audience of members and friends is also available here.

As a brief recap, it was a good year for our conservancy.

Membership has grown to 190 paid memberships

We secured our largest single donation up to then of $15,000 from an anonymous donor thru the Jewish Federation of Northeastern NY

Moving forward with our efforts to address water quality, working with the City Water Department on improvements around the pond.

Lots of good things are happening and the coming year holds the promise of both a new playground and upgrades to erosion control issues that will help improve the water quality in the pond. However, as with every all-volunteer organization, we could always use more hands helping us row the boat. If you have an interest in joining one of our committees or the board, I encourage you to attend our monthly meetings which are the first Monday of each month @ 7:30. We hold those meetings at the public meeting room at the Bach Branch of Albany Public Library at 455 New Scotland Ave.

Thanks so much to our volunteers on April 30 including Councilman Joe Igoe!
A few hearty souls came out in the drizzle, picked up trash and cleaned out the debris that had collected at the east end of the pond!

Next Meeting

Please join us at the next board meeting. Board meetings are the best way to find out what we are doing and get more involved.
Next meeting:
Monday August 7 at 7:30 PM
Bach Branch of Albany Public Library
455 New Scotland Ave